On Sept. 6 and 8 when the St. Bonaventure University men’s soccer team lined up against Navy and University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the players were introduced before lining up at midfield to hear the national anthem.
This is normal for all sporting events, professional, collegiate and even amateur. What makes these two games stand out from the millions of others where the anthem is played?
The Bonnies had no American players in the starting 11.
In September 2017, I wrote an Extra Point for The Bona Venture titled “Why the national anthem is irrelevant,” detailing why I thought it was absurd to be playing the national anthem before nearly every single sporting event, some of which had hardly any Americans competing. I explained why the tradition began and also argued for Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the anthem.
I don’t want to rehash any of the points I previously made, but seeing our soccer team roll out a team with four Canadians, two players from Hong Kong and a player each from Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, England and Denmark stirred up similar thoughts. What is the point of playing a song that bears no meaning to the athletes involved?
And when I say playing a song, I mean it. Countless soccer and lacrosse games I’ve attended in my time at St. Bonaventure have had no anthem singer, so a recording is played instead.
From an athlete’s perspective, I don’t find the national anthem to be patriotic or meaningful to the game itself. When the cross country team ran at the UB Stampede Invite last Friday, a recording of both O Canada and The Star-Spangled Banner was played moments before the men’s race when athletes were doing their final preparations. We had to stand still for nearly five minutes after warming up for an hour, and there wasn’t even a person to sing it.
When it is played is similarly illogical; if there are back-to-back women’s and men’s basketball games in the Reilly Center, the anthem is only played for the first game, which is very often the women’s game.
There are not nearly as many fans at a women’s basketball game as a men’s game, so does it make sense to play it for fewer people? Or does it make sense to play it for more people, but push the men’s game back a couple minutes to have additional time for the color guard and anthem singer to do their thing?
Does it make sense for either?
I’m all for playing the national anthem before games, despite what the two articles I’ve written in opposition may sound like. But playing the anthem before almost every sporting event across the country? At some point, it loses its meaning and people are desensitized, simply standing up, removing their hats and putting their hands over their hearts for no reason.
In tournaments and championship games, having an anthem singer adds to the spectacle of the event. Hearing your country’s national anthem after winning an Olympic medal is surely one of the proudest moments of some athletes’ lives. Singing The Star-Spangled Banner on a game on July 4 or Sept. 11 rouses a sense of pride to be an American.
That sense of pride is simply nonexistent, especially at an event with no Americans represented.
By Ryan Signorino, Training Editor
siggnora15@bonaventure.edu
